Chapter 10
My father was arrested in his driveway.
He did not fight.
That almost made it worse.
He looked at me as officers cuffed him.
“Mark, this is not what you think.”
I stood behind the police line.
“Then explain it.”
He opened his mouth.
No words came.
Bethany screamed from the porch.
“You ruined us!”
Rosie was not there.
I would not let her see it.
Mom stood behind the curtain, crying.
I felt nothing when I saw her.
That scared me.
Then Dad looked at me.
“Elena was going to take Rosie and move away.”
“Because you were threatening her.”
“She was tearing this family apart.”
“No,” I said. “She was protecting my child from it.”
His face hardened.
There he was.
The real man under the father costume.
“She made you weak.”
I stepped closer.
“No. She made me decent.”
The trials would take months.
Maybe longer.
But the first hearing happened fast.
Bethany appeared with a bruised cheek from my slap and acted like a martyr.
Her lawyer said I was violent.
Detective Reed played the urgent care report.
Then Rosie’s statement.
Then the dinner witnesses.
Then the video from Elena’s car.
Bethany went pale.
Bail was set high.
Dad’s was denied after prosecutors presented the note threatening Rosie.
Mom called me that night.
“Your father says he did it for family.”
I closed my eyes.
“Tell him he doesn’t know what that word means.”
She sobbed.
“What about me?”
I looked at Rosie sleeping in the next room.
“You watched too much.”
“I was afraid.”
“So was Elena.”
May you like
No answer.
I ended the call.
